


All In A Kiss

by jupiter23



Category: Dragon Age Inquisition - Fandom
Genre: Drunken Shenanigans, M/M, Mutual Pining, the Inquisitor playing matchmaker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2020-01-12 11:08:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18445313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jupiter23/pseuds/jupiter23
Summary: Based on a prompt. A drunken king of Ferelden challenges an equally drunken commander of the Inquisition to confess his feelings to his crush by doing something about it. A drunken commander takes a drunken king up on his challenge.Later, a sober king of Ferelden and a sober commander of the Inquisition are left with no memory of this challenge.But a confused and upset Tevinter altus does remember....





	All In A Kiss

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a Tumblr headcanon-turned-prompt by Tumblr user jellysharkbat which can be read here: https://jellysharkbat.tumblr.com/post/182595218992/who-wants-to-see-cullen-and-alistair-get-drunk
> 
> Beta read by my BFF jeannedarcprice, who also came up with the title.

Dorian sat on a rock, staring into the middle distance in the general direction of the stream where they’d found the body of an unfortunate young woman who had fallen to her death. Varric and Iron Bull had left a few minutes ago to return to their base camp to get help to recover her body, leaving him alone with Evelyn and his thoughts about what had happened at Skyhold right before they’d left.

Cullen Rutherford, stoic and ever-so-reserved commander of the Inquisition’s forces, had kissed him.

_Kissed. Him._

In front of _everyone_.

It had come out of nowhere. There he’d been, walking along with Vivienne arguing a magical theory he now couldn’t remember the subject of, when he had suddenly been grabbed. He hadn’t even realized who it was, had no time to even call up his mana to set the bloody idiot who would dare to assault him so suddenly on fire, before a pair of lips were on his and a tongue was pushing into his mouth.

He would attribute it to his shock that it had taken him a few seconds longer than it normally would have to figure out just who exactly it was.

Which helped exactly _nothing_.

Because it was _Cullen_. Cullen was _kissing him_.

All Dorian had been able to do was stand there in wide-eyed, frozen astonishment as Cullen practically devoured his mouth. There might have been surprised gasping and exclamations going on around him, and some drunken fool was cheering in the background. All he knew was when Cullen finally released him, everyone else looked just as stunned as Dorian himself felt.

It would take Dorian a full minute to realize Cullen had tasted like the inside of an ale cask (and, to add insult to injury, it wasn’t even _good_ ale) and that the drunken fool who had been cheering had been King Alistair of Ferelden himself. The moment he’d let Dorian go, Cullen had stumbled back over to Alistair, and the two of them lurched off somewhere into Skyhold together, arms around one another and giggling like Sera did when she successfully pulled off a particularly clever prank.

Dorian had gone out of his way to avoid Cullen after that. It hadn’t been hard to do, given that King Alistair was in Skyhold on some sort of business with the Inquisitor that he hadn’t bothered to find out the details of. Three days later, Alistair was on his way back to Denerim and Evelyn had packed him, Varric, and Bull off to the Emerald Graves to investigate something to do with the red templars.

Even Dorian knew he’d been uncharacteristically quiet in the week of travel it took to get there. He was still trying to make sense of what had happened with Cullen, and he was no closer to an answer.

“Okay, out with it,” Evelyn’s voice broke through his buzzing thoughts as she sat down next to him.

“Out with what?” Even he knew avoiding the subject wasn’t going to work. Besides the fact that Evelyn had been there, she was extremely perceptive. A good trait to possess, unless she was directing it at him. Then it was just irritating.

“You know exactly what,” she said. “You’ve been brooding ever since that day Cullen accosted you.”

“I am _not_ brooding,” Dorian argued, more because he felt like being petulant than because he was denying the fact that he absolutely _was_ brooding.

“You are too,” Evelyn shot back. “You’re far too quiet, and you’re only quiet when you’re upset.”

Dorian was ready to argue about that, but whatever he was about to say died on his lips and he suddenly didn’t have it in him to fight over this matter. Besides, Evelyn was his best, not to mention one of his very few, friends. Alienating her over something as ridiculous as this wouldn’t solve his problem.

“He kissed me,” he murmured.

“Yes, I know. I was there,” Evelyn reminded him.

“ _Why_ , though? Why _me_? I thought he wasn’t attracted to men! Or _anyone_ else, for that matter,” Dorian said.

“Well, the short answer would be that he was so drunk that he didn’t know what he was doing,” Evelyn replied.

“And therein lies part of the problem! I want to be angry with him, and I can’t be, because he wasn’t himself!”

“So you’re upset because Cullen kissed you, and you don’t even know _why_ , and that’s making you angry, but you think you _can’t_ be angry since he was drunk?”

“I believe that about sums it up, yes,” Dorian said.

Evelyn hummed in understanding. “In that case, would you like to rant about it while Varric and Bull are gone? Or would you rather return to your brooding?”

“I am _not_ —“

“Or perhaps I can offer some maybe-helpful insight,” she continued, and that silenced Dorian’s denial.

“’ _Maybe_ -helpful insight?’” he instead repeated with an edge of amusement.

“Maybe-helpful insight,” she confirmed. “Because while I can’t claim to know what is going on in Cullen’s mind, I _can_ tell you what happened that led up to him accosting you in the courtyard.”

Dorian glanced at her, considering for a moment. Then he nodded for her to continue.

 

_~Ten days earlier~_

Evelyn skirted around yet another boulder as she, Cassandra, Varric, Bull, and Blackwall followed Cole into the trees lining the road. They hadn’t been outside the Skyhold gates more than a few minutes, scouts and soldiers alike splitting up into groups to help search for King Alistair, when Cole suddenly appeared in front of them and announced that Alistair and Cullen were not only together, but he knew exactly where to find them.

Now Cullen being present wherever it was Alistair happened to be was a surprise. When they’d received word from Alistair’s rather distressed entourage that he had disappeared on the road to Skyhold, a runner had gone looking for Cullen. Leliana had said Cullen and Alistair had known one another from their training as Templars, and if anyone might have an idea where Alistair had gone, it might be him. Only no one could find Cullen, either. Evelyn hadn’t been surprised that Cullen was nowhere to be found, since he was either probably busy with Inquisition business or was suffering one of his headaches and gone somewhere quiet and didn’t wish to be disturbed.

Cullen and Alistair being together was unexpected, and Evelyn couldn’t help being wary that something was amiss. The only reason her staff wasn’t in her hand and at the ready was the fact that Cole hadn’t said they were in trouble. In fact, unlike everyone else, Cole was completely unarmed.

“Hey, kid, how much further?” Varric called as Cole led them further into the trees.

“If you’re tired, Varric, you could always return to Skyhold,” Cassandra said, her voice edged with the usual degree of annoyance that seemed reserved just for Varric.

“And miss out on watching you try to restrain yourself when you realize you can’t just go and tear a _king_ a new one for vanishing without a word? Not a chance!” Varric replied.

“What I want to know is,” Blackwall cut in, speaking over Cassandra before she could round on Varric, “why Cullen ran off without a word as well.”

“According to Red, Cullen and the king knew one another when they were in Templar training, and according to Alistair’s people, he’s prone to disappearing at random. I’d bet Cullen got a message from him and decided to go and collect him himself before his running off created too much of a fuss,” Bull answered.

“But not sending word to _someone_ that he was leaving Skyhold for a bit is unlike Cullen,” Evelyn said. 

“I suppose Cullen will explain himself once we locate him and his majesty,” Cassandra said.

“The song, singing, loud, insistent—no, must ignore it—he knew me _before_ ,” Cole suddenly interrupted just before he stopped and pointed to a small clearing just ahead of them. “There,” he said. Evelyn headed in the direction Cole pointed, everyone else falling into step behind her.

The entire group was brought up short, however, at the sight that greeted them. Alistair and Cullen were there, of course, settled on the ground against a boulder and passing a bottle between themselves. Littered on the ground around them were several more empty bottles as well as the pieces of their armor and their swords.

“Hey!” Alistair nearly shouted, saluting everyone with the nearly-empty bottle. “It’s’the Inkquiss—Innqis—Cullen, how’d’you say it’again?”

“Inq—Innn…qui…” Cullen tried, then snatched the bottle from Alistair and downed the rest of it before declaring, “Evelyn. Her’name ish Evelyn.”

Now this was new. To her memory, Evelyn had never seen Cullen so drunk before. Or drunk at all. She didn’t think he _did_ drink, come to think of it.  She actually had to force herself not to think about the kind of effect this might have on his lyrium withdrawl later.

“They’re…” Cassandra started, clearly as bewildered as Evelyn felt.

“Shitfaced?” Bull supplied.

“Smashed?” Varric added.

“Drunk off their arses?” Blackwall suggested.

“Yeah,” Evelyn agreed.

“Hey!” Alistair protested, “I’ll have’you know tha’we are’not…not drunk…”

“Damn’right!” Cullen declared.

Alistair snatched the now-empty bottle back from Cullen, tried to take a drink, and glared at it when nothing came out. Cullen started giggling at the expression on his face.

“Now look’what you’ve done!” Alistair whined. “That’was’the lasht bottle!”

“Theresh more at…more’at Sskyhold,” Cullen slurred between bouts of giggling.

Alistair’s face lit up. “Really? Then letsh…letsh’go’to Ssskyhold!” That decided, he slowly rolled forward onto his knees.

And then nearly face-planted into the grass when he tried to push himself to his feet.

Cullen and Alistair both immediately burst out laughing, and Blackwall, Bull, and Varric began snickering. Cassandra made an exasperated noise, and Cole only watched everyone in slight confusion.

“Should I carry them both back, Boss?” Bull offered.

“Not yet,” Evelyn said. “We’ll let them walk back on their own if they can manage it.” She and Cassandra were already headed for Cullen.

“Five silvers says neither one of them will have an ounce of dignity left by the time they sober up,” Varric announced as he and Blackwall began gathering up weapons and armor.

“You’re on,” Blackwall accepted.

“Count me in too,” Bull added as he singlehandedly lifted Alistair off the ground and set him on his feet. Alistair immediately swayed into Bull, who kept a steadying hand on his arm until he could find his balance. “In fact, put me down for one of them doing something crazy before tomorrow morning.”

“Bull’sh’gonna lose,” Cullen said as Evelyn and Cassandra lifted him to his feet. “’Cause’we’re’not _tha_ ’drunk.”   

Alistair staggered over to Cullen and threw an arm around his shoulders. “We’re’not’drunk _at all_ ,” he corrected.

“Jus’like…jus’like tha’time’we snuck out’of our room in’the’middle of the nigh’an’found the wine cellar,” Cullen said.

“We’weren’drunk then either,” Alistair insisted while Evelyn gently prodded at their shoulders to get them moving. “Not’our’fault the Sisters’didn’believe us…”

Everyone fell into step around the two of them as they slowly made their way back the way they’d come while Alistair and Cullen continued to reminisce about their days in Templar training. Pretty soon, everyone else had tuned them out.

It was nearly nightfall by the time they’d made it back to Skyhold. As they crossed the bridge into the castle, calls that the Inquisitor had returned started sounding, and Evelyn could see someone running into the castle proper, presumably to let Josephine and Alistair’s escort know.

Evelyn never quite knew what part of Alistair and Cullen’s drunken conversation caught her attention. Maybe it was their voices bouncing off the stone walls of the gate as they crossed through it and into the courtyard, or maybe it was something one of them had said.

Whatever it had been, it was obvious that Alistair and Cullen had begun arguing at one point, and it was starting to get a bit heated.

“—do _too_ have’someone’ssspecial!” Cullen shot back at Alistair indignantly.

Cassandra and Evelyn exchanged a look. “Was Cullen courting someone?” Evelyn asked quietly.

“If he is, I wasn’t aware,” Cassandra answered just as quietly.

“Curly is with someone?” Evelyn could hear Varric asking Bull and Blackwall. Bull only shrugged his shoulders in response, and Blackwall looked just as confused as everyone else.

“Do’you?” Alistair challenged. If either of them had heard their exchanges, they didn’t show it.

“I do!” Cullen insisted. “Just’cause’they’don’ know it doesn’t mean’they’aren’ssstill special to’me.”

“They’don’even…”Alistair repeated. “Then you’should’find them and tell them. ‘Cause I’won’believe you until’you’do.”

“Fine, I will!” Cullen decided. “I’ll’do’it right now!”

That decided, he straightened up and looked around the courtyard for a minute. Evelyn noted then that at some point, he and Alistair had drawn the attention of everyone else who happened to be in the courtyard as well. But she wasn’t given much more time to think about it. Cullen had started making a surprisingly steady beeline in the direction of the main keep.

Evelyn followed his trajectory to find Vivienne and Dorian coming down the stairs, obviously in a debate of their own and oblivious to anything else that was going on.

“You don’t suppose—“ Cassandra started to say, but then cut off when Cullen pulled Dorian into his arms in a nearly crushing grip and sealed his lips over the mage’s.

Despite the surprised gasping and murmuring going on around them (and Alistair cheering loudly), Evelyn didn’t think _anyone_ looked nearly as shocked as Dorian did.

When he finally released Dorian what seemed like an eternity later, he stumbled back over to Alistair.

“I’stand’corrected,” Alistair said, throwing an arm around Cullen’s shoulders again.

Cullen hooked his arm around Alistair’s waist. “I hope’you’do,” he chided, the both of them dissolving into giggles as he led Alistair towards where a stunned Josephine and the Ferelden guard were waiting.

As Evelyn made to follow them, she could hear Bull muttering, “You both owe me,” to Blackwall and Varric, who both swore violently in answer.

 

Dorian blinked at Evelyn as she finished her story. “Cullen…has a _crush_ on me?”

“It would seem so,” Evelyn confirmed.

Dorian could only look around in speechless astonishment. No. No, Cullen couldn’t have a crush on _him_. It wasn’t possible.

“And why not?” Evelyn asked, alerting Dorian to the fact that he’d spoken his thoughts out loud.

“I just…he can’t—no, no, not me,” he protested weakly.

“That’s not much of a reason,” Evelyn argued.

Dorian let out a heavy sigh. “I’m the evil pariah mage from Tevinter, remember? And he’s a devout Andrastian ex-Templar from Ferelden. He _should_ be considering settling down in the countryside with some well-endowed young woman and fathering a horde of children someday, not pining after the likes of _me_.”

“Dorian, that’s still not much of a…wait,” Evelyn’s argument trailed off as she clearly began to put the pieces together. “Oh, _Maker_ , Dorian, I’m _so_ sorry! I never realized…”

Dorian could only avert his gaze, his face burning.

“How long have you felt this way?” Evelyn asked gently.

“Does it matter?” he answered.

“Yes, it does! You’re in love with him, and he feels the same way about you! You wouldn’t be so upset about this otherwise,” Evelyn said. “You two really should discuss this with one another when we get back to Skyhold.”

“To what end?” Dorian protested. “He doesn’t even know what he did, and me confessing my feelings for him will only upset him, too.”

“Um…” Evelyn winced.

Dorian watched her for the moment it took realization to strike. “Maker’s _breath_ , you didn’t…”

“Dorian, you and I both know he’d have eventually heard the rumors and found out anyway,” she said. “At least this way he heard about it from friends first. Besides, even _I_ had no idea you’d be so angry about what happened. However, if it’s any consolation, he was completely mortified by what he’d done.”

Dorian glanced over at her, his own embarrassment subsiding, as she continued.

 

_~Nine days earlier~_

Evelyn, Leliana, Josephine, and Cassandra all settled in to wait as the runner left the war room. King Alistair and Commander Cullen were on their way, she’d informed them. However, they had slept on the floor of the guest room Alistair was currently occupying and both of them were _extremely_ hung over, so it would be somewhat slow-going.

At least they both intended to get this meeting underway. Not only was Evelyn due to leave for the Emerald Graves in a few days to investigate some red templar activity, Alistair would need to return to Ferelden to see to his own duties and couldn’t be kept away from Denerim for any longer than necessary. And if he were going to lend some of the troops from Ferelden’s army to the Inquisition, then they needed to get started on how and where to best deploy them as soon as they could.

About twenty minutes later, as Josephine was taking a sip of her tea, Cassandra was finishing up a report, and Leliana and Evelyn were quietly conferring over a missive about one of Leliana’s agents whose cover was in serious danger of being blown, there was a commotion at the door.

“…still choose to blame this on you,” a voice said.

“ _You_ were the one who brought the extra ale,” a second voice shot back.

“That didn’t mean you had to drink it,” the first voice argued. “You could have just come with me back to Skyhold one of the first six times I asked, and there would have been someone here to cut us both off.”

The four women all glanced around at one another, and then back to the door.

“How _did_ we get back to Skyhold, anyway?” the second voice asked. “Last I remember, we were in the forest near the road.”

“No bloody idea,” the first voice answered as the heavy oak door was slowly pushed open. “Do your servants always neglect to share information such as that with you?”

Evelyn had just enough time to share a sly look with the other three women before greeting Cullen and Alistair in a voice much louder than necessary. “Good day, your majesty! Commander!”

Alistair and Cullen immediately cringed, their eyes clamping shut while Alistair’s hands flew to his ears and he whimpered in pain.

“I trust you both slept well?” Leliana asked innocently, her voice only slightly lower than Evelyn’s had been. Josephine expertly disguised a giggle as a cough.

“ _Andraste’s arse_ , _could you both lower your voices?_ ” Alistair groaned as he made himself straighten up and stagger into the room.

“I may vomit again,” Cullen moaned, massaging a temple with one hand as he followed Alistair and shut the door. Josephine, and Leliana this time as well, had to disguise another giggle.

“To answer your question, Leliana, we slept poorly,” Alistair snapped. “Sleeping on the floor of this castle was worse than sleeping on the ground.”

“By the way, what happened yesterday? How did we get back to Skyhold?” Cullen asked before Leliana could make a retort.

The four women looked at one another, the question about how best to handle this on their faces.

“We think it would be best if we saved that until our immediate business is concluded,” Josephine said carefully. Cullen and Alistair shared a mildly alarmed look. “Suffice to say for now the Inquisitor found you and brought you back.” Evelyn could tell the two men were burning with curiosity, but Josephine was right. This likely wasn’t to go over well.

 

Several hours later, their meeting concluded, Cassandra left to confer with Alistair’s people, and Leliana was on her way out.

“I’ll do what I can to suppress the rumors,” she said in a low voice to Evelyn. “Though I’m not sure how much good it will do. A _lot_ of people were in the courtyard yesterday.”

“Do the best you can,” Evelyn told her. “I’ll try to find Dorian later and check on him.”

Leliana nodded in acknowledgement and left the room. Evelyn turned to find Alistair and Cullen both watching her, and knew that they’d heard their exchange. Josephine had rounded the war table and was now standing at Evelyn’s side.

“Dorian…isn’t that the Tevinter magister who’s helping the Inquisition?” Alistair asked.

“Don’t tell me we hurt him,” Cullen said.

Evelyn and Josephine exchanged a look. “He’s not a magister,” Evelyn said. “But yes, he is helping us.”

“Why don’t we start at the beginning?” Josephine suggested as Alistair opened his mouth, no doubt to ask what the difference was between the Tevinter Imperium’s magisters and the rest of their mages and therefore derailing the entire discussion.

So Evelyn and Josephine told them, starting with the arrival of Alistair’s flustered honor guard and ending with the events in the courtyard the night before, watching as Cullen’s horror and Alistair’s humiliation slowly grew.

“Maker help me,” Cullen murmured as his face grew a darker shade of red and he turned away from everyone to lean on the war table and bury his face in his hands.

“Shit,” Alistair murmured. “Cullen you can’t know how sorry—“

“I should have dragged you back to Skyhold kicking and screaming,” Cullen snapped without removing his face from his hands. “I should have never _touched_ that damned ale. And now Dorian will never…” Cullen left the end of that sentence unfinished, choosing instead to lean further forward on the table and bury his head in his arms.

“No, this is all my fault,” Alistair said. “I could have waited until we arrived here before starting my drinking binge.”

Cullen let out a heavy sigh and lifted his head from the table, though he didn’t look back at anyone. “I suppose we were both too drunk for either of us to shoulder the blame alone,” he said. “I forgive you for everything that happened.” He then planted his face back in his arms and didn’t move again.

Alistair smiled at Cullen’s back, though there was still an edge of guilt to it. “I’m going to return to my room to lie down,” he said. “Hopefully later the thought of food won’t make me nauseous.”

“I’ll escort you,” Josephine said after casting a long glance at Cullen’s back and then exchanging another glance with Evelyn. She and Alistair then left without another word, pulling the door shut softly behind them.

“Cullen?” Evelyn asked gently after a nearly an entire minute in which Cullen remained motionless.

“Fuck me,” Cullen growled into the table in response. Then he finally lifted his head and scrubbed at his face. “I need to find Dorian and beg his forgiveness for what I did.”

“That…may not be the best idea right this minute,” Evelyn said. “Judging by the way Dorian reacted to what happened last night, and knowing him as well as I do, he’s as likely to set you on fire as he is to listen to anything you have to say right now. You may want to let me handle him first.”

Cullen nodded his agreement. “Damn it all,” he suddenly muttered, pushing himself up from the table and going to the windows, bracing his hands on the frame of one. Evelyn doubted he was actually seeing the mountain range on the other side of it.

“If you don’t mind my asking,” she said as she rounded the table to join Cullen at the windows, “what exactly is it that ‘Dorian will never’ do?”

Cullen started slightly, clearly shocked at her words. Then his face paled, and he looked even more pained than his hangover-induced headache was no doubt making him feel.

“Forgive me,” he murmured. “He’ll never forgive me for what I did to him.”

Evelyn studied him for a moment. “There’s more to it, isn’t there?” she asked sympathetically.

Cullen looked for an instant as if he were going to deny it, but then his shoulders slumped and he averted his gaze. “Yes,” he all but whispered.

 

Dorian was back to staring into the middle distance. He had no idea what to make of this new information.

“He…really does have a crush on me?”

“Yes.”

“And he really was that broken up over what he did?”

“I can promise you Cullen has no acting skills to speak of, so yes, he was.”

“Huh…” Dorian could feel his earlier anger begin to slip away.

“And I know he wants to apologize to you for what he did, so the two of you discussing your feelings for one another will likely be inevitable. Unless you both just wish to go on being deliberately obstinate about it,” Evelyn said.

Dorian blinked rather than immediately respond to Evelyn’s barb. He was already formulating an idea of how to go about this. Besides, he rather think he owed Cullen for that stunt he pulled.

“You know,” he said, sitting up straighter, “I think—“

But his words were cut off when a group of red templars emerged from the thick foliage. He and Evelyn sprang to their feet, staves in hand and mana surging. Evelyn’s spectral blade extended from one hand.     

“Dorian, I fully expect you to complete that thought later,” she said, leaping at two red templars and swinging her spectral blade through them.

“Darling Evelyn, you’ll find out precisely what I’m thinking as soon as we arrive back at Skyhold,” Dorian said with a somewhat wicked grin as he raised a wall of fire that lit three red templars up.

 

_~Six days later~_

Cullen laid down his pen as the runner that announced the Inquisitor and her party would be at the Skyhold gates within ten minutes left his office and he rubbed at his eyes with one hand.

All this time with Dorian being in the Emerald Graves with Evelyn, Varric, and Bull, and Cullen was still no closer to knowing what exactly to say to him. A simple “I’m sorry” seemed too insufficient, but he also didn’t have a penchant for flowery speech. As it was, the best he could hope to accomplish was a string of incoherent, half-garbled words that would mean absolutely nothing to Dorian and would probably result in making him even angrier.

Maker preserve him, he would damn well deserve it if that were the case.

He let out an irritated snarl and sat back in his chair, propping his chin on one hand. This was certainly _not_ how he’d ever planned to tell Dorian how he felt about him, assuming he could ever gather up the courage to do so. No, what he would have liked to have done was maybe try to bring it up over one of their chess games. Perhaps invite Dorian for a walk and…

And…

Probably find some way to hurt himself tripping over his own words…

But still. Even _that_ would have been a damn sight better than drunkenly _assaulting him_ in front of the entire Inquisition.

Cullen heaved a sigh and glanced through the window that overlooked the road leading into Skyhold. Evelyn and her group were starting to cross the bridge now. She, Bull, and Varric were all obviously laughing over something, but Dorian looked as if he weren’t paying the slightest bit of attention to any of them. He actually looked deep in thought about something, if Cullen had to guess.

Well, better to get this over with as soon as possible. After all, the worst that could happen was Dorian would refuse to speak to him. He drew in a breath and left his office.

 

Cullen arrived in the courtyard a few minutes later. He’d stopped for another nerve-steeling breath before he’d descended the final flight of stairs. The Inquisitor and her party were turning their horses over to Dennet and his stablehands, and servants were relieving the group of their packs and weapons. Others were crowded around the Inquisitor as they normally were to welcome her back and ask after the details of her latest mission.

“….and then…and then we get there,” Varric guffawed at the crowd of onlookers. “And the Inquisitor and Dorian are just sitting on a boulder, calmly as you please, with like, _twelve_ dead red templars all over the place!”

Cheers, laughter, and shouts of disbelief went up as Varric continued his story and Bull howled with laughter, but Cullen tuned it out. Whatever had happened in the Emerald Graves, he’d read about it in Evelyn’s report later. He was still working out what he was going to say to Dorian.

As it turned out, he wouldn’t need to bother. Dorian, who obviously hadn’t been listening to Varric either, locked eyes with him. And Cullen found himself rooted to the spot as Dorian broke from the crowd and marched determinedly for him, never breaking eye contact. He didn’t stop until he was well within Cullen’s personal space.

Cullen was only distantly aware that the entire courtyard had gone quiet. He opened his mouth to speak, though he still had no idea what he was going to say.

But it didn’t matter, because Dorian didn’t give him any time to consider it further before grabbing him by the shoulders and hooking one foot behind his knee to pull him off balance and into his arms.

Then Dorian’s lips sealed over his, his tongue plunging into his mouth. Cullen could do nothing more than let out a surprised grunt and grab Dorian’s shoulders for balance.

It seemed like an eternity before Dorian finally broke the kiss (and _Maker_ , how Cullen wished he never would…) and set Cullen back on his feet. Cullen stood there slightly dazed, watching as Dorian make a show of licking his lips and straightening his moustache with his fingers as he shot Cullen a positively evil smile before turning and striding off in the direction of his quarters.

Cullen was still standing there, staring after Dorian long after he vanished into the castle proper, when a large hand shoved him from behind. He glanced behind him to find Bull, Varric, and Evelyn standing there, with the still-stunned crowd watching.

“Go. After. Him,” Bull said. Varric and Evelyn were both smiling at him.

Cullen blinked once, and then decided he didn’t need to be told twice.


End file.
